‘I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell’

i-hope-they-serve beer in hell

It’s hard to watch “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell” and not applaud its sense of commitment.

Ugly characters. Ugly dialogue. Ugly situations. And one of the ugliest character epiphanies in movie history.

Whether viewers are keen on marinating in it is up to them.

Audiences and critics alike chose not to during the film’s brief theatrical run.

“Hell,” out now on DVD, follows Tucker (Matt Czuchry), Drew (Jesse Bradford) and Dan (Geoff Stults) as they huddle to plan Dan’s bachelor party. Dan wants a modest affair, but the verbally and sexually aggressive Tucker goads them into hitting a strip club where nearly anything goes.

So that settles it, since saying no to Tucker is “Mission:Impossible” for his chums.

He’s a force of nature, but the kind you wish would blow away – fast.

The trio head off for a night they won’t soon forget, insulting a gaggle of women at a bar before checking out the permissive strip club of their dreams.

Along the way Dan gets himself in legal trouble, Drew sets his misogyny aside briefly to woo a stripper with a heart of gold and Tucker … keeps on being Tucker.

It’s a toss up regarding the most contemptible character in “Hell.” The easy answer is Tucker, who wrote the book the film is based upon from true incidents. He’s an arrogant, self-centered jerk with microscopic redeeming qualities. And yet Tucker is a hit with the ladies who see through his facade to the inner … well, it’s hard to know just what they see in him beyond a handsome face.

Should audiences salute or slap Czuchry for stirring those emotions in them?

Drew, who might have been a nice human being at one point, verbally savages any woman who crosses his path. But it’s OK since his girlfriend just cheated on him.

Poor guy.

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And then there’s Dan, a milquetoast’s milquetoast who should kick these two buffoons to the curb.

The script feels like one, protracted hate crime, with characters hurling insults around that sound forced coming from the mouths of these neanderthals. The people in “Hell” don’t speak the way most buddies speak.

The screenwriters, the real Tucker Max and Nils Parker, stuff every clever line and pop culture nod they can think of into the movie until nothing even resembles reality.

Yes, the characters learn the consequences of their behavior … but only in a wink-wink, nudge-nudge, we won’t do it again until the weekend way.

“I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell” isn’t your typical R-rated romp. It’s more crass than “The Hangover” – and only a fraction as appealing – or funny – or enjoyable.

(Photo: Max Czuchry plays the thoroughly unlikable Tucker Max in the fact-based comedy “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.”20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)